Justice Index

The Justice Index is NCAJ’s model for increasing access to justice in our society through the use of performance measurement. This new web-based resource gathers and presents data showing the extent to which each of our 50 state-based justice systems is adopting best practices for assuring access to all. Visit the Justice Index web site, www.justiceindex.org. On August 12, 2017, participants from the six law firms, four corporations and three law schools comprising the pro bono Justice Index Team that helped build the Justice Index will receive the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico Award, recognizing their extraordinary pro bono service. Visit NCAJ’s Justice Index here (at www.justiceindex.org)! Read news coverage of the Justice Index here! Check out experts’ opinions about the Justice Index here!

Purpose

Public institutions function best when people understand how they operate, when the performance of these institutions can be evaluated, and when analogous institutions can be compared with one another. Transparency is particularly important for courts, which rely on the public’s faith for their existence. By setting benchmarks, identifying best policies and practices, and publishing data and findings, the Justice Index has been helping since March 2014 to empower judges, court administrators, legal aid reformers and other officials, journalists, academics and activists in their respective efforts to improve our justice system.

Topics covered

In the Justice Index findings are presented on four aspects of state based justice systems:

Number of civil legal aid lawyers in each state.

Systems in place to support self represented parties in state courts.

Systems in place to support people with limited proficiency in English in state courts.

Systems in place to support people with disabilities in state courts.

Justice Index findings can be examined by state performance in each category, or by state performance in all categories combined. Visitors can also see which particular best practices are present, or absent, in which particular states. Visit www.justiceindex.org to see all the findings contained in the Justice Index.

Partners

The Justice Index was created by NCAJ in 2013-14. Pro bono support has been key to the project since its inception as described at the Justice Index, www.justiceindex.org. Pfizer Inc. and the Pfizer Legal Alliance (PLA) of 15 law firms, Deloitte, MSDS, attorneys and staff at Skadden Arps and at Kirkland and Ellis, students at Cardozo School of Law and University of Pennsylvania School of Law, along with attorneys and staff at UBS Corp. helped to build the original Justice Index and to populate it with data. In 2014, teams of pro bono lawyers at Skadden Arps and at Kirkland & Ellis updated, corrected and clarified the Justice Index, with new findings posted in November of that year. In 2015-16, NCAJ carried out a comprehensive research project to update the Justice Index. NCAJ asked state justice system officials to respond to an extensive set of questions about laws, rules, and policies for assuring access to justice in every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Five law firms (contributing more than 50 lawyers) worked pro bono with NCAJ staff to conduct a rigorous Quality Assurance Review of the proposed findings recommended by the states. Justice Index 2016, www.justiceindex.org, contains the final findings. Justice Index 2014, the original justice index, remains online at www.justiceindex2014.

Larger Context

The Justice Index occupies a place within a larger effort to bring performance measurement and data-indexing to the task of increasing access to justice in the world. In September 2015 the United Nations adopted the “Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs), a set of “Global Goals” intended to guide efforts to end extreme poverty in all nations including the United States by 2030. Goal 16 urges countries to assure access to justice for all their residents. For more information on the SDGs and Goal 16, see NCAJ’s July 28, 2015 Fact Sheet and August 3, 2015 Blog Post, prepared with Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute.

At the Franklin Williams Commission’s, Mass Incarceration: Mercy Matters, an all-day event oversubscribed at 250 people with attendance by NY judges at Fordham Law School this week, David Udell, NCAJ’s executive director & a co-director of the Fordham Law School… Read more

Please click here for a blog post on the panel discussion, on the Access to Justice Initiative page of the web site of Fordham Law School. Please click here to obtain NCAJ’s Concept Memo accompanied by links to key readings from the… Read more

On January 26, David Udell, executive director of the National Center for Access to Justice at Fordham Law School, delivered the keynote address at the annual Justice for All Luncheon of the New York State Bar Association. In the address,… Read more

This post jointly authored by: Risa Kaufman, Columbia Human Rights Institute, and David Udell, National Center for Access to Justice On September 15, 2016, access to justice experts from the academic and nonprofit communities gathered for a Consultation with U.S. government… Read more

On October 19, 2016, Fordham Law School marked the arrival of the National Center for Access to Justice (NCAJ) and the launch of the school’s new Access to Justice Initiative, with a pathbreaking public event, Where the Civil and Criminal Justice Systems Meet:… Read more